USDA staffers worry about changes to telecommuting

CHANGE IN TELEWORK WORRIES USDA STAFFERS: Some studies show that working remotely increases productivity, cuts turnover and helps the environment by reducing commuting. Yet a plan cut back on the USDA Telework Program for most administrative employees has many agonizing about their job security and scrambling to find child and elder care, Christine reports.

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The new plan: In February, the department will start enforcing a new policy that requires employees to work in a USDA office at least four days a week. Union representatives say that will especially cause hardships for workers who commute long distances, like forest service employees in rural areas.

A surprise to unions and USDA workers: Although the agency had been communicating with its employee unions for several months about ways to change its Telework Program, Secretary Sonny Perdue wants an even more restrictive policy than had been discussed. It’s also a shock because employees have been strongly encouraged in recent years to work remotely and have carved their lives around that policy, according to union representatives and employees. Some USDA locations have been redesigned under the assumption that there would be fewer people working in the office.

A glimpse at its effect on USDA workers: One USDA employee’s family is already stretched so thin financially on a government salary that the extra commuting costs may cause bankruptcy. A second employee who chose to have a baby based on the telework policy is scrambling to figure out what to do next.

Perdue’s Georgia Fridays: While Secretary Perdue may want employees in the office four days a week, he’s found a way to combine monthly trips to his home state of Georgia with his official duties. Check out this sidebar here.

HAPPY TUESDAY, JAN. 16! Welcome to Morning Ag, where your host has been following the efforts by one woman to make the cinnamon roll recipe Mario Batali included in his sexual harassment apology letter. To summarize for busy MA readers: don’t bother making the recipe and buy doughnuts instead! Got any news tips? Please send them to chaughney@politico.com and @chaughney. Follow the team at @Morning_Ag.

HOW H-2A OVERHAUL AND FUTURE OF DACA OVERLAP: A House immigration bill could tie an overhaul of the current agricultural guest-worker program to the future of DACA, if House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte gets his way. The House Republican immigration bill includes Goodlatte’s controversial H-2A bill that would revamp the agricultural guest-worker program.

Refresher on what’s in it for ag: The 414-page immigration bill – which include the same text from Goodlatte’s H-2A bill this fall – essentially scraps the current H-2A program, partially housed in the Labor Department. It would set up a new H-2C visa program that would be handled by the USDA. The program would still be partly overseen by the Department of Homeland Security.

It would allow agricultural employers – such as meat processors, dairy farmers and loggers – in need of year-round work to apply. This is a sharp difference from the current program that offers guest-worker visas for temporary or seasonal agricultural jobs that last under 10 months.

Vocal opposition remains: United Farm Workers, AFL-CIO and more than 140 groups have been vocal opponents of the potential H-2A change, saying that it would “create even more unfairness and dysfunction in our immigration system.”

“Instead of focusing in on providing urgently needed relief for young Dreamers, Republican Bob Goodlatte has chosen to introduce the ‘Nightmare’ bill, which hurts Dreamer families and includes other attacks on new Americans,” Giev Kashkooli, political and legislative director for United Farm Workers told Morning Ag. Among other things Goodlatte's legislation “would undermine the wages and working conditions of all agricultural workers,” Kashkooli said.

Many agricultural industry groups – particularly those in fresh produce and poultry sectors – expressed support for Goodlatte’s H-2A legislation last year. Changing the H-2A program would remove restrictions and requirements that farmers have complained about for years.

What do Ryan and Trump think of the bill? The House has not set a vote for the Republican bill that has slim chance of passing the Senate. President Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan have repeatedly said they would like to have a bipartisan legislative solution. But it remains unclear if they will find a replacement for DACA -- which offered 700,000 immigrants who entered the U.S. as minors renewable deferred action from deportation and permission to work. More from POLITICO’s Rachael Bade on the bill here.

IBACH, TRADE GROUPS PLEDGE CO-OP FIX: USDA officials are ready to work with Congress to make necessary fixes to the new tax law that has given a huge advantage to farmers who sell their goods to co-ops instead of other types of companies. A late change included in the final version of the tax bill that passed was intended to offset the loss of the Section 199A provision that applied to co-ops.

“While the goal [of the tax bill] was to preserve benefits in Section 199A for cooperatives and their patrons, the unintended consequences of the current language disadvantage the independent operators in the same industry,” USDA Undersecretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Greg Ibach said in a statement. “The federal tax code should not pick winners and losers in the marketplace.”

Here’s the provision: Sens. John Thune, John Hoeven and other lawmakers – who are now working to tweak it as well – included an offset in the final legislation that gives farmers a deduction of up to 20 percent on total sales made to co-ops (farmers won’t get the same deduction if they sell to companies not structured as cooperatives). The deduction would, in effect, offer a huge incentive for farmers to sell their products to co-ops and move away from selling to independent and private companies.

Co-ops and independent companies unite: Chuck Conner, president of National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, and Randy Gordon, president of National Grain and Feed Association, said they were working with senators to find a fix.

“The goal of these discussions is to arrive at an equitable solution that preserves the benefits that cooperatives and their farmer patrons previously enjoyed under Section 199 of the tax code, while addressing any unforeseen impacts on producers' marketing decisions,” the groups said in a joint statement. More from Sabrina here.

ROW CROPS:

— Reviving flood control: Amid the debate over earmarks, Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) has been pushing to revive the Yazoo Backwater Area Pumps proposal, a controversial $220 million Mississippi flood control project that would improve farming conditions and reduce flooding. Some lawmakers are calling it the epitome of pork barrel projects. More from Pro Energy’s Annie Snider here.

— FDA rejects Bayer request: The FDA denied on Friday a request from Bayer to approve a qualified health claim, saying there is “no credible evidence” that consuming vitamin D may reduce the risk of developing multiple sclerosis. More from Pro Ag’s Helena Bottemiller Evich here.

— Vietnam brings WTO case: Vietnam took the first step in bringing a WTO dispute on Friday, arguing that U.S. anti-dumping duties on Vietnam’s exports of fish fillets violate three trade agreements. If the U.S. and Vietnam don’t come to an agreement in 60 days, Vietnam can request for a WTO panel to hear its case. More from Sabrina here.

— FDA extends deadline: The public will have 60 more days to comment on the FDA’s proposal to revoke its authorized health claim for soy protein and heart health. The deadline is now March 19. More from Helena here.

— Tribes band together over farm bill: Out of the more than 56,000 American Indian-operated farms and ranches in the U.S., some tribes say they have been ignored when it comes to crafting the farm bill. Now, more than 30 tribes have formed the Native Farm Bill Coalition, which will lobby for a provision to remove cash match provisions so impoverished areas can receive federal funding, Minnesota Public Radio reports.

— Food insecurity plagues college students: A New York Times op-ed argues that onerous work requirements and high college costs are leading to hunger, hampering students’ ability to learn. The first federal briefing on the topic was held last month.

— Softening on NAFTA? Sen. Joni Ernst told members of the Iowa Corn Growers on Monday that she thinks the president “has doubts” about pulling out of NAFTA. More from The Gazette here.

— Breeding male and male-ish cattle: Geneticist Alison Van Eenennaam is aiming to use gene-editing tool CRISPR to create bulls that only father males: either typical bull calves or ones with two X chromosomes that are essentially male -- with bigger muscles, a penis and testicles. The bulls would be of value to beef ranchers, she believes. More from MIT Technology Review here.

— Back to beef: The U.S. is back to being the top beef exporter to South Korea in 2017, as shipments jumped 13.7 percent from the year before, Reuters reports.

— USDA rule allows pork imports from Mexico: The USDA has finalized a regulation that will allow all Mexican states to export pork to the United States, a move supported by the National Pork Producers Council.

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About The Author : Sabrina Rodriguez

Sabrina Rodríguez is a reporter for the Pro Trade team. Sabrina got her start at POLITICO in 2015 as a participant in the POLITICO Journalism Institute and later interned here twice. She most recently was a POLITICO fellow, covering both trade and agriculture issues.

A Miami native and Northwestern University grad, she has also interned at Chalkbeat New York, Miami New Times and The Miami Herald. She covered the first months of the Trump administration at Diario Perfil in Buenos Aires, Argentina.